1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of producing vapor for use in a vapor sterilizing process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Steam or another hot vapor is used for sterilizing mainly in medical engineering, pharmacy, food processing and biological technology.
Steam sterilizers are used for various purposes in medical engineering and their sizes differ in dependence on the intended purpose. The smallest devices are used to sterilize instruments in the offices of physicians and dentists and usually consist of small steam generators (autoclaves), which are electrically heated. Hospitals are usually equipped with larger systems for sterilizing medical utensils made of various materials, such as glass, metal, rubber, ceramics, plastics or pulp and for sterilizing textiles, such as disposable supplies or clothes. Such steam sterilizers are connected by fixedly installed annular steam lines to a central steam generator or are supplied with steam from separate steam generators, which are electrically heated.
Because the articles to be sterilized may consist of widely different materials, the temperatures which the materials will withstand vary widely, too, so that the sterilization must be effected under conditions selected in view of these requirements. In usual steam state generators for generating sterilizing steam the steam (or parameters) which can be achieved is determined by the boiling point curve of water. Because the conditions of sterilization which can be selected are restricted by the steam parameters which can be achieved (in the prior art the steam parameters can be varied only within a restricted range), the conditions of sterilization can be selected only within narrow limits. In the selection of the conditions the requirements for an optimum sterilization can be taken into account only as a secondary consideration.
Another disadvantage of the known steam generators for generating sterilizing steam resides in that it takes a relatively long time until the steam is available under the conditions required for sterilization.
The disadvantages described hereinbefore with reference to sterilization in medical engineering, by way of example, will also be encountered in connection with sterilization in pharmacy, in food processing and in biological technology, where a sterilization of biological reactors, fermenters and peripheral equipment, for instance, may be required.